Mount St. Helens - Worm Flows Route — Sunday, May. 6, 2018

Beautiful day on Helens despite the forecast of rain and thunderstorms that almost kept us away! Left parking lot at 8:30am, made several stops along the way, especially once we were in the snowfields to take photos of the amazing views of Mt Adams and Mt Jefferson, and reached the summit at 2pm. By the time we got to the top, the clouds had rolled in, along with some freakishly close thunder so we didn’t stay too long at the summit. Then came the ridiculously fun glissading, through some pretty cool chutes at times too. Made it back to the car just before 5pm. Had maybe 10min of rain all day and mostly clear skies. We had brought micro spikes, crampons, ice axes, poles, and snowshoes- definitely didn’t need the snowshoes. In fact, it was harder with them on bc footsteps are already carved out up the steep sections and snowshoes won’t fit in them. Two of the three of us didn’t even put them on- you definitely don’t need snowshoes right now, they’d just be extra weight. You will be perfectly fine with micro spikes, crampons, yak tracks, or even just some good boots- saw plenty of people hiking up with just poles. Had minimal postholing bc paths were pretty packed down. You could leave the ice ax behind too if you’re bringing at least one pole- which you definitely should bring for the way up and just use the handle as your break for glissading on the way down. Last thoughts: sunblock, sunglasses, and trash bags for your butt on the way down! Also don’t forget plenty of water. Have fun!!